The teenage superhero Spider-Man made his first appearance in the pages of a 1962 comic book called “Amazing Fantasy,” issue No. 15. He proved so popular with readers that publisher Marvel Comics created “The Amazing Spider-Man” series in 1963.

Columbia, the film studio unit of Sony Corp, is looking to reinvent its massively popular “Spider-Man” movie franchise by casting Garfield, who was born in the United States but raised in Britain, to replace previous Spider-Man actor Tobey Maguire.

The 2002 “Spider-Man,” sequel “Spider-Man 2” and the last release “Spider-Man 3” from 2007, which all starred Maguire, earned over $1.1 billion combined at box offices in the U.S. and Canada, according to industry tracker boxofficemojo.com. It is one of the most successful franchises in movie history.

In 2008, the Library of Congress got the comic book equivalent of Spider-Man’s birth certificate, when an anonymous donor gave it the original drawings for “Amazing Fantasy #15.”